Consumer Reports: GM's Volt 'doesn't really make a lot of sense'

[teacherone]

who would've thought? :rolleyes:

Washington — Consumer Reports offered a harsh initial review of the Chevrolet Volt, questioning whether General Motors Co.'s flagship vehicle makes economic "sense."The extended-range plug-in electric vehicle is on the cover of the April issue — the influential magazine's annual survey of vehicles — but the GM vehicle comes in for criticism.

"When you are looking at purely dollars and cents, it doesn't really make a lot of sense. The Volt isn't particularly efficient as an electric vehicle and it's not particularly good as a gas vehicle either in terms of fuel economy," said David Champion, the senior director of Consumer Reports auto testing center at a meeting with reporters here. "This is going to be a tough sell to the average consumer."

The magazine said in its testing in Connecticut during a harsh winter, its Volt is getting 25 to 27 miles on electric power alone.


"If you drive about 70 miles, a Prius will actually get you more miles per gallon than the Volt does," Champion said.

Champion noted the Volt is about twice as expensive as a Prius.

He was said the five hour time to recharge the Volt was "annoying" and was also critical of the power of the Volt heating system.

"You have seat heaters, which keep your body warm, but your feet get cold and your hands get cold," Champion said.

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110228/AUTO01/102280401/Consumer-Reports--GM’s-Volt-‘doesn’t-really-make-a-lot-of-sense’#ixzz1FKfJQZFt

[NewRightLibertarian]

I suspect that General Motors' recovery has mostly been media created.

[Sola_Fide]

Corporatism works wonders, doesn't it?

[roho76]

Pffft...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1

http://www.papermag.com/blogs/EV1.jpg

What a bunch of dunces. They can't even recreate what they already had.

100 mile range
80mph top speed

Even the first gen model of the EV1 beat the volt.

(GM) Redefining success as: slowing down failure.

[HOLLYWOOD]

Industry is Soooooo Corrupt.

As the Ratings Agencies were to Wall Street... same for the Auto Mags to Car manufacturers. The Corporatist-Fascist government even taxes all of us to sell the GM POS!

http://image.motortrend.com/f/oftheyear/car/1101_2011_motor_trend_car_of_the_year_chevrolet_vo lt/31442104+pheader/volt-coty-teaser.jpghttp://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSJcJad-lE-iamu0G9si07rxGrMYcwYCNveZxnPl17iAjphHBZlW0q4G3wTrQ

[roho76]

Industry is Soooooo Corrupt.

As the Ratings Agencies were to Wall Street... same for the Auto Mags to Car manufacturers. The Corporatist-Fascist government even taxes all of us to sell the GM POS!

http://image.motortrend.com/f/oftheyear/car/1101_2011_motor_trend_car_of_the_year_chevrolet_vo lt/31442104+pheader/volt-coty-teaser.jpghttp://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSJcJad-lE-iamu0G9si07rxGrMYcwYCNveZxnPl17iAjphHBZlW0q4G3wTrQ

Was getting the Motor Trend award included in the bailout?:rolleyes:

[teacherone]

Industry is Soooooo Corrupt.

As the Ratings Agencies were to Wall Street... same for the Auto Mags to Car manufacturers. The Corporatist-Fascist government even taxes all of us to sell the GM POS!



I would wager my life savings that the entire Toyota media-demonization last year was ordered from up high.

They tried to destroy a great company that actually produces quality and economical cars just so Government Motors could make a little cash at the IPO.

[BamaAla]

I can get a new Fiesta for a third of the cost and end up with a better looking car that gets considerably better gas mileage. It'll have a Ford badge on it to boot!

[jclay2]

I suspect that General Motors' recovery has mostly been media created.

Yep. Anyone look at the company's financials. They look like garbage. The company had negative operating earnings in Q4 and if you take out goodwill on the balance sheet, the company has a negative equity per share of about $ 6. Maybe this company would be worth something to a competitor, perhaps below 20 billion or so. Otherwise, this thing is going bankrupt again.

[Jandrsn21]

99 Honda Civic, tuned for nearly 40 mpg, no car payments, liability insurance, and cheap maintenance. This is a 12 year old car and the volt is best "innovation" can do for us. :( Hey but it has shiny alloy rims, seat warmers, and bluetooth!

[HOLLYWOOD]

Yep. Anyone look at the company's financials. They look like garbage. The company had negative operating earnings in Q4 and if you take out goodwill on the balance sheet, the company has a negative equity per share of about $ 6. Maybe this company would be worth something to a competitor, perhaps below 20 billion or so. Otherwise, this thing is going bankrupt again. The Irony is GM sold more vehicles in China than in North America. All the Tax Breaks, Tax Credits, Government Subsidies, and of course the earned income off the Taxpayer Bailout Escrow account.

The latest round of $15 BILLION in corporate welfare tax breaks to the BIG 3... it's amazing how it's all has become a huge American PYRAMID/PONZI Junk Yard.

[teacherone]

99 Honda Civic, tuned for nearly 40 mpg, no car payments, liability insurance, and cheap maintenance. This is a 12 year old car and the volt is best "innovation" can do for us. :( Hey but it has shiny alloy rims, seat warmers, and bluetooth!

lol. seat warmers don't work.


He was said the five hour time to recharge the Volt was "annoying" and was also critical of the power of the Volt heating system.

"You have seat heaters, which keep your body warm, but your feet get cold and your hands get cold," Champion said.

[Stary Hickory]

I am boycotting GM and will continue to do so FOR LIFE

[JohnEngland]

Maybe if they make it look cute, they'll be able to sucker a lot of people into buying it...

http://www.earthfuture.com/econews/images/08-10b.jpg

[georgiaboy]

I am boycotting GM and will continue to do so FOR LIFE

same. Chrysler too.

[Krugerrand]

Corporatism works wonders, doesn't it?

It gave us the ever-loved Trabant

http://czechmatediary.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/110-trabant.jpg



or should I say - ever-versatile:
http://younxt.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/trabant-and-horse.jpg?w=450&h=352

[dean.engelhardt]

The Irony is GM sold more vehicles in China than in North America. All the Tax Breaks, Tax Credits, Government Subsidies, and of course the earned income off the Taxpayer Bailout Escrow account.

The latest round of $15 BILLION in corporate welfare tax breaks to the BIG 3... it's amazing how it's all has become a huge American PYRAMID/PONZI Junk Yard.

Can we pay off our national debt to China in Volts?

[Anti Federalist]

http://images.businessweek.com/story/08/600/0904_mz_ecocar.jpg

The 65 mpg Ford the U.S. Can't Have

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_37/b4099060491065.htm

65 MPG diesel.

Can't sell it here, too costly, too much regulation.

[fisharmor]

Of course it doesn't make sense - at least not to anyone who can do simple arithmetic.
If it costs $50 to fill up your tank with 87 octane once a week, and a volt only requires that you fill it up once every three weeks with premium gas, you're only cutting your gas bill in half.
So the cost of the car over a six-year ownership can be no more than $7800 more than a fuel-efficient car.
This also assumes that the battery pack doesn't need to be replaced in that time, which is far from a guarantee. It's the same battery power used in laptops. If they're clever about it they can get 6 years out of a pack. If they're not, it'll be stone dead in 3 years, and will need to be replaced at a cost of several thousand dollars.

MSRP on this monstrosity is over $40k. Add in a potential extra battery pack, add in the fact that it can only be serviced at the dealer (who else is going to know wtf to do with it?), and there isn't much that is going to make up the $20-30k extra cost involved in owning this bad joke of a car.

[AGRP]

That's OK.

What matters is that a handful of elitists stole billions of our dollars.

They have families like the rest of us you know.

[libertarian4321]

Of course it doesn't make sense - at least not to anyone who can do simple arithmetic.
If it costs $50 to fill up your tank with 87 octane once a week, and a volt only requires that you fill it up once every three weeks with premium gas, you're only cutting your gas bill in half.


Whenever I see someone lead with something like "anyone who can do simple math should agree with my point," I tend to question their math.

As someone who's pretty good at math- a couple of engineering degrees and an MBA, and I'm not seeing how your math works.

Even using your assumptions (which, of course, won't be correct for all drivers), your "only cutting your gas bill in half" numbers are only true if premium is 50% more than the 87 octane (3 regular fill ups at $50 each versus a one time premium fill up of $75).

I don't know where you buy your gas, but I've never seen premium that was even close to 50% more than regular (if the regular was $3.30, it would require the premium to be $4.95 per gallon- and no one would buy it if that were the case).

Typically, you see prices more like I have here- regular is $3.19 and the premium is 3.39- that's a difference of less than 7%, which is far from the 50%.

So using your assumptions regarding frequency of fill ups, and a 7% higher cost ($53.50 per fill up vs. $50 per fill up) for premium, you'd pay $150 using the regular car versus $53.50 using the Volt- which means you'd reduce your fill up costs by 64+% (not 50%), which is a huge difference.

Of course, if you primarily use the car for commuting, and drive less than 40 miles per day, your gas cost would be very small in the Volt.

Not that I'll be buying one, I prefer to drive a Chevy truck.

[olehounddog]

5 hrs to charge. How much will this run up a power bill? Seems to me it will pull a lot of juice.

[HOLLYWOOD]

5 hrs to charge. How much will this run up a power bill? Seems to me it will pull a lot of juice.

So if it comes from a Coal or Oil burning power plant... it's just moving the Exhaust Pipe, eh? Additionally, someone posted the increased Carbon footprint in creating/producing this EcoLemon. But the most uphauling is the US Government has to steal from the taxpayers and pay Americans $7500 to buy this car. California has an additional $5,000 Credit... but must meet Advanced Technology Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle (ATPZEV) all battery that last at least 150,000 miles. GM stated they could meet this with some Campaign Donations code changes. :rolleyes:

[libertarian4321]

So if it comes from a Coal or Oil burning power plant... it's just moving the Exhaust Pipe, eh? Then also someone posted the increased Carbon footprint in creating/producing this EcoLemon

Very little power in this country comes from burning oil.

About 95% comes from come from coal, nuclear, hydro, and natural gas, with lesser amounts from renewables (wind and solar) and a very tiny bit from burning oil..

The difference is, most coal, nuclear, hydro, and natural gas are produced in the USA, not overseas (as is the case with oil/gasoline).

[dannno]

http://images.businessweek.com/story/08/600/0904_mz_ecocar.jpg

The 65 mpg Ford the U.S. Can't Have

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_37/b4099060491065.htm

65 MPG diesel.

Can't sell it here, too costly, too much regulation.


Our government is so fucking retarded it's not even funny.. we spend billions of dollars bailing out a company who creates a crappy car that costs way more money and doesn't get as good gas mileage as a prius (which has been around for a decade), in the mean time there are plenty of even cheaper, higher mileage models out there that they regulated out of the market..

[specsaregood]

lol. seat warmers don't work.

Actually the part you quoted specifically says the seat heaters do work, its just the rest of the heating system doesn't. :)

[Brian4Liberty]

Actually the part you quoted specifically says the seat heaters do work, its just the rest of the heating system doesn't. :)

You need to upgrade to the available quadro-thermal surround system. *











* Four incandescent light bulbs installed in each corner of the car. Vehicle can double as a terrarium. Your pet iguana or bearded dragon will love it.

[Brian4Liberty]

Pffft...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1

What a bunch of dunces. They can't even recreate what they already had.

100 mile range
80mph top speed

Even the first gen model of the EV1 beat the volt.

(GM) Redefining success as: slowing down failure.

That vehicle had a couple of fatal flaws: it didn't require petrol, and it was almost maintenance free.

[KCIndy]

http://images.businessweek.com/story/08/600/0904_mz_ecocar.jpg

The 65 mpg Ford the U.S. Can't Have

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_37/b4099060491065.htm

65 MPG diesel.

Can't sell it here, too costly, too much regulation.



I'm a huge fan of diesel.

I've got a VW Jetta that gets between 40 - 45 mpg depending on who is doing the driving... my wife
drives like a little old lady and has gotten as high as 48 mpg on one trip. The car generally averages
around 44.

Best of all? Unlike any electric car or hybrid, I can drive my TDI diesel Jetta like a maniac and *still*
get great mileage.... :D

I would LOVE to get one of the European diesel powered Fiestas.

[TheTyke]

I'm shocked.

[KCIndy]

Of course, if someone wants to buy me an electric car, I wouldn't say no to:

http://www.teslamotors.com/roadster

[freshjiva]

I bought a 2-year used Honda Insight for $14K. Gets me 45 mpg city/highway combined. Beats the hell out of the Volt.

[roho76]

That vehicle had a couple of fatal flaws: it didn't require petrol, and it was almost maintenance free.

I know. I always get complaints about my insatiable appetite for trying to starve the children of oil tycoons.

[Brian4Liberty]

I know. I always get complaints about my insatiable appetite for trying to starve the children of oil tycoons.

And the children of dealership owners (the big money is in repair and maintenance).

[squarepusher]

Maybe if they make it look cute, they'll be able to sucker a lot of people into buying it...

http://www.earthfuture.com/econews/images/08-10b.jpg

oh gawd

[puppetmaster]

I would wager my life savings that the entire Toyota media-demonization last year was ordered from up high.

They tried to destroy a great company that actually produces quality and economical cars just so Government Motors could make a little cash at the IPO.

you bet. I agree 100%.